Dear DELL,
This is a story of love at first sight, a blissful courting period and then heartbreak. While shopping around for a new notebook, I chanced upon a gem of one. 1080p MATTE display? Check. Zippy quad-core Ivy Bridge CPU? Check. Proper, dedicated GPU? Check. Copious amounts of RAM? Check. Beefy HDD? Check. FOUR USB 3.0 ports? Check. Optical disk drive (call me old-fashioned)? Check. Decent price tag? Check (after online discount). Not hesitating, I instantly bought an Inspiron 7520 from you in July of 2012. At first, everything was going great. I had a wonderful relationship with my notebook. The AMD Radeon HD 7730M ran most recent games on medium to high settings as long as I wasn't too demanding with the resolution. Ultra high settings were out of the question, but I was fine with that. Of course, if DELL had allowed me to upgrade to a 7750M or a 7770M, things would've been even rosier. Oh, the good times!
As they say, all good things must come to an end. This relationship that bordered on perfection didn't last long. In October of the same year, tragedy struck. My baby had shipped with Win7 Home Premium 64-bit, but since I was eligible to purchase Win8 at a subsidised price, I went for it right after Win8 launched. At first, I had been wary of upgrading because I was afraid if there would be compatibility issues with my existing games (I have a sizable library of Steam titles). However, after researching this matter, I discovered that there was not much to worry about. Win8 appeared to be just as good for gaming as Win7 (or even better). I therefore took the plunge.
Lo and behold! Immediately after installing Win8, it became apparent that DELL had not amply prepared for the influx of new Win8 7520 users. Right off the bat, my AMD video card stopped working. Needless to say, this was obviously a driver problem. I'm a patient person. Hence, I decided to wait for DELL or AMD to release a newer version of the 7730M drivers. Because, you know, manufacturers/OEMs need time to do their stuff. And I understood that. Take a few weeks, heck, take a couple of months. Then, I want a fully functioning GPU again so that I can play games beyond 800x600 on low settings. Now, when I try to open the Catalyst Control Centre, it just gives me this error: "Catalyst Control Centre cannot be started. There are currently no settings that can be configured with Catalyst Control Centre". Tick, tock, tick, tock... Fast forward to today, 5th March 2013, and it's been approximately half a year since Win8 premiered.
Here's a question, DELL - WHERE ON EARTH ARE THE LATEST DRIVERS FOR THE AMD RADEON HD 7730M???
Before any tech support agent gives me an official response asking me to troubleshoot/diagnose/attempt to fix my system, I'm going to save you the trouble: DON'T. Here's a (non-exhaustive) list of the steps that I've taken in the past half a year to troubleshoot/diagnose/attempt to fix my system:
- I've been through the whole "devmgmt.msc" process.
- I've updated my .NET version to the latest one.
- I've downloaded and installed ALL the latest drivers for BIOS, GPU, WLAN, USB 3.0, even memory card reader, you name it. Yes, not even the latest GPU drivers on your website work. The 7730M just doesn't quite work with Win8. This means that either the latest drivers are not the latest, or that you have released a very sloppy update that probably worsened the situation instead of improving it.
- I've trolled multiple fora online (beginning with DELL's) for fixes.
- I've visited AMD's support website and unacceptably, the Win8-specific drivers for the 7730M have not been released yet. Worse still, it seems like they have not committed to a timeframe for updating their drivers!
- I've tried installing different versions of the drivers for the 7730M, none of which made a difference.
- I've probably done a few other things but I can't recall anything else at the moment.
Look, it's very simple, DELL. On behalf of EVERYONE who purchased the 7520 from you (and I know that this is a popular model), we are sick and tired of waiting for a simple driver update!!! If AMD can't get their crap right, nudge them, push them, force them to! You have a working business relationship with them, but you also have a relationship with us, your customers. If you do indeed treat us as your valued customers, then please, please, please, please, please, just publish that one elusive driver update which re-enables the GPU in our 7520s, whether running on Win7 or Win8. This is the last straw for me; I actually took the time to type out this essay just to release all my pent-up frustration.
To conclude, I have had it with not being able to enjoy something that I rightfully own the way I want to. If you don't sort this matter out as soon as possible, I give you my word, I will not be buying another DELL ever again. Don't respond to this letter by way of a useless official answer that you give to every single complainant, I want real action to be taken. Also, I don't want to downgrade to Win7 as I love Win8 so that is not an option as well. This issue has spiralled out of control - just looking at the number of threads complaining about this exact same matter makes me want to pull my hair out. Once again, on behalf of all Inspiron 15R SE 7520 owners, I implore DELL and/or AMD to come up with a permanent solution to this problem quickly. Pretty please?
Yours sincerely,
An Extremely Agitated Inspiron 7520 Owner